improvised wort chiller?

[AndyHannas]

today is my first all-grain batch. after buying some new equipment and ingredients, i find myself without a wort chiller. since im brewing in the kitchen in my tiny apartment, i dont really have the room to run that much water anyway. so this is the plan i have devised:

immediately after the boil is done, pop a lid on the pot and stick it in the tub with a couple bags of ice

once the wort is cooled to a manageable temperature, use my racking cane and a length of siphon tube, transfer the wort to my fermenter.

i have a gel filled flexible ice pack for sore muscles or whatever. i freezing it now, wrapped around a wooden dowel. then when i go to siphon my wort, ill run the tube through the middle of the ice pack.

my theory is that it should work fairly similar to a counterflow chiller without having to waste a bunch of water. my wort is coming up to a boil now, so ill report back in a couple hours and let you know how it works out.

 

[tasq]

I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but I don't see how this will be anywhere near as efficient as a CFC.

Let us know how it goes at any rate.

 

[alan_marks]

I hope you have some type of valve controling the flow of your hot wort because if you don't it will be moving WAY too fast to make any difference to chill your wort. The idea of counterflow chillers is that you have hot wort moving past cold water to chill the wort. The hotest wort moves past the hottest water and the coolest wort moves past the coolest water to chill the wort. Notice that it can only cool down to the level of your coolest water.

Alan

 

[wilserbrewer]

immediately after the boil is done, pop a lid on the pot and stick it in the tub with a couple bags of ice

I would suggest sticking the pot in the tub for twenty or thirty minutes with just plain tap water, then drain and refill w/ cool tap water and the ice. Otherwise you risk running out of ice. A boiling hot kettle will likely melt two bags of ice and still need more cooling...if you use just tap water to knock the heat down a bit, you will need a LOT less ice.

The method you are proposing will work fine, but be a little patient, might take an hour or two depending, but will chill fine...stirring the wort and the water/ice bath will speed thing up if you like.

Forget the racking cane and freezer pack idea, won't do much at all IMHO...a CF chiller has like 10-20 feet of copper pipe for heat transfer, you'll have like 6" of vinyl tubing.

 

[tnbrewer371]

Save the effort won't do a bit of good, I have 50' of chiller and it still takes a while for it to go from 80-65 in the summer when the ground water is a a lot hotter so I doubt if your ice pack will do anythin g at all just gonna be a hassle....

 

[dmbhawker]

Yea i agree with wilserbrewer, soak in tub for 10 to 15 and then drain water and start over, and finally do ice bath for third and final bath. Once you get a wort chiller though you will laugh at your ice bath days, ive used my homemade one once and i am in love so is ol lady cause we still have ice in the house after brew day, lol goood luck!

 

[tnbrewer371]

Also once I built my chiller, only cost me like sixty and I made a fifty footer, I don't know how I ever lived without it, I mean from boil to pitch in twelve minutes appx amazing!!

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I know you are in Virginia so if you have snow outside use that instead of ice. Infinite supply, saves money, and works just as good.

 

[El_Exorcisto]

How about you skip trying to chill? I lid my pot and set it in my basement, then pour into the fermenter and pitch yeast the next morning. No infections, and crystal clear beer.

 

[kmk1012]

I also recommend making an imersion chiller but, if not available I think it would be more effective to run your tubing through your ice water bath on the way out. Not very effective but better than an ice pack.

 

[AndyHannas]

i stuck the pot in an aluminum trash can with two big bags of ice once it was cool to the touch, popped the lid on it and left the house for 2 hours. when i got home, it was down to 52 degrees. crazy!